OOPs, they fucked up. They only made it two-against-one & the result was a smackdown.
On mainstream 'news' TV it's customary to have three or four neocon crazies against one Democrat so the Dem barely gets to speak at all. Neocons (&other cons) flee a fair fight like the plague. If they're forced by argument to reveal what they really think the audience quickly realizes that the only fighting they've ever done is with the voices in their heads as they type away on 'position papers' to wow the Cheney wing (ever smaller) of the Republicans.
Here's a transcript of a fine moment. I get the feeling they could've doped Wesley Clark & he still would've beat 'em like a rented mule:

General Wesley Clark on CNBC Kudlow & Company

July 6, 2007

Larry Kudlow: ...(Joe Liberman's article) Quote, "I hope the new revelations about Iran's behavior will also temper the enthusiasm of some of those in Congress who are advocating the immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. That would be a disaster for the region and the US." End quote. Joining us now General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, former Presidential candidate AND Jed Babbin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Editor-in-Chief honcho of Human Events, author of the new book In The Words of Our Enemies. General Clark, to you, first welcome to the program. Sir-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.

Larry Kudlow: -do you have any particular disagreements with Joe Liebermen's approach?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (Laughs) Many, with Joe. First of all, I wasn't a supporter of the war on Iraq. Secondly, I think we need to find a responsible way out of Iraq. Third, I think we need to be putting a full-court diplomatic effort on Iran to persuade them that they're much safer and mush better off without a nuclear weapon. We're on a countdown to war, and the kinds of saber-rattling that Joe Lieberman does accentuate the countdown rather than-

Larry Kudlow: General-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -finding a way to a solution.

Larry Kudlow: General, with all due respect, do you, how can you disagree? Isn't the evidence overwhelming that Iran is operating to finance and arm terrorists in Iraq who are killing American troops? Do you disagree with that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, I, I fully agree with that. They- you know, from the beginning, Larry, when we went in there, there were those in the administration that said, 'Well first, we're going to handle Iraq. Then we're going to take care of Syria and Lebanon and we're going to end up-

Jed Babbin: (sigh)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -going after and getting regime change in Iran. Their first line of defense against the United States is what they're doing in Iraq. If we want to change that dynamic, we've got all the cards. We have them surrounded. We have the military dominance. Why won't we talk to Iran?

Larry Kudlow: Alright. So, Jed Babbin, come on in here. General Clark wants more diplomacy as the solution.

Jed Babbin: Well, with all due respect to General Clark, that's the Einstein definition of insanity. We have been trying. The EU3 have been trying. People have been trying to negotiate with the Mullahs since 1979, and I would defy anybody to tell me one single instance in which diplomacy has changed the Iranians' behavior. There isn't one. We are on a countdown to war - the General is right - but to put us on a course of diplomacy, to rely on the UN is essentially to surrender. The Iranians have us on the run in Iraq, not because we haven't talked to them, but because they will not tolerate a stable Iraq. What we have to do is take a very aggressive, hawkish diplomacy, and military matters, both covertly and overtly, need to be taken to strike back at the Iranians. They are operating within Iraq. We know that. We've captured them. We capture the weapons they bring in. A-and again, I just keep coming back to the fact that everybody who talks about diplomacy can't site one instance where it has ever worked with these guys.

Larry Kudlow: Well, General Clark, Joe Lieberman basically says if the United States withdraws precipitously from Iraq, as many Democrats in Congress are proposing that this would amount to a victory for Iran AND for the Iranian-linked terrorists in Iraq, including Al Qaeda.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Larry, the-

Larry Kudlow: You disagree?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Larry, the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein done by the Bush administration was a victory for Iran. HE was their big enemy. We got rid of him. We did the Iranians a huge favor. Now, the truth is that Iran came, has come to us at least three times since 2002 looking for an opening and a way to talk, and we've rebuffed them. So, we haven't tried diplomacy. This administration's not trying. This administration is-

Jed Babbin: (sigh)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -on a countdown, and here's what's waiting at the end of the road: a nice air strike, 14 days or so of air strikes, Special Forces operations. We've already got SF going in there. We've got over-flights, at least that's what I'm told. So, we're, as far as the Iranians are concerned, we're doing to them what they're-

Jed Babbin: (sigh)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: doing to us. And at the end of it, if we are able to execute this strike and we've really got Iran then up in arms against us, what is accomplished other than a five year or so delay in the nuclear.

Jed Babbin: Well-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We don't have the capacity to occupy Iran. We don't have to capacity to calm down the Islamic world after the strike.

Larry Kudlow: Yeah but Jed Babbin

Jed Babbin: Can I get back in here.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's more (inaudible) We're playing into Al Qaeda's hands.

Larry Kudlow: Jed Babbin.

Jed Babbin: Can I get back-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Jed, you've thrown out so many red herrings in your comments-

Jed Babbin: General, look-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -I'd need 15 minutes to refute what you've said.

Jed Babbin: Well, I, I'd be glad to give you that time, but Larry doesn't have it. The fact is-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You don't either.

Jed Babbin: -you're the one throwing- Well the, you don't have the red herrings. You don't even have a red herring in your (inaudible).

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I never said-

Jed Babbin: Look, let's

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -the United Nations-

Jed Babbin: General-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -is going to solve this problem.

Jed Babbin: General, General, you are on a solely diplomatic track. What you just described-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm not on a solely diplomatic track.

Jed Babbin: You just described-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I said we had everything at hand.

Jed Babbin: -the most conventional Army thinking that we have to get over. The answer is we do not go after the Iranian people. We tell them again, and again, and again, they are our friends. We don't strike. We don't invade. I never said that we should and I will never say that. That's lunacy to do that.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: How many air campaigns have you run, Jed?

Jed Babbin: Number two. I have not-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: How many, how many have you run.

Jed Babbin: (laughs) I know how many you have

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm the only guy that's ever won an air campaign-

Jed Babbin: I know how many you have micromanaged.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -and I know how to do it, and I have to tell you, you don't want to do this.

Jed Babbin: I know how many you have micromanaged.

Larry Kudlow: How about-

Jed Babbin: It's a failure in Bosnia, General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I know I can tell you this, Jed, we won.

Larry Kudlow: General Clark, just let, real quick, General Clark, how, w-why don't we turn the financial screws on Iran. We could take them out of their misery, not the country, but the Mullahs running the country, right now - as Condi Rice suggested to our Maria Bartiromo - turn the financial screws. The Mullahs can fold.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm all in favor of using financial screws, but I think you have to couple it with some direct dialog with Iran.

Larry Kudlow: Alright.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You've got to change their approach.

Larry Kudlow: We've got to leave it there. We have to leave it there, gentleman. I appreciate it very much. General Clark, I am a great admirer of you, though I have some disagreements with your views.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Larry.

Larry Kudlow: We appreciate. Jed Babbin, as always, you are the best.

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